Fire Emblem: The Journal of the Tactician
by LordHothead
Summary: Fire Emblem never had such a sarcastic viewpoint! New chapter FINALLY up. R&R. This means you.
1. Prologue: Lost in Sacae

Me: Guess what?  
  
Samus: Mother Brain spontaneously combusted?  
  
Kraid: You witnessed two metroids having s-  
  
Me: Kills Kraid One, that's sick, two, I'm already hoping Kabutroid doesn't kill me for using Planet Zebeth to introduce my fics without you directly quoting it.  
  
Samus: ...  
  
Me: Anyway, this is my first fanfic. I know that the whole tactician's juornal thing has already been done a few times, so what?  
  
Samus: You play Fire Emblem too much.  
  
Me: Way to go, genius!  
  
Samus: ka-click  
  
Me: ohh crap...anyway, I don't own Fire Emblem, but anyone reading this that actually has a brain should already know that. So, here's the fic, in the meantime I'll be trying to avoid the missile-wielding psychopath runs  
  
-  
Prologue: Lost in Sacae -  
Day 1: Location: Northern Sacae Weather: Clear  
  
I'm traveling because I'm a tactician and there's nothing to do as a tactician where I came from. Sure, Ilia has plenty of mercenaries but I'd rather not have to pay someone to plan good strategies. Besides, it's frikin cold there. So I'm heading to some place that I can be a tactician in a decent climate where I don't have to pay someone to offer my services or something.  
  
I also have a really cool sword that I made myself. I'd probably make a ton of money off of it, but as long as it's the only one in existance I'd rather use it than sell it. So while I'm traveling I might as well gather the materials to make some more, just for the hell of it. I'm not sure why but I'm able to use all types of weapon and magic. I don't trust any weapons I didn't make myself, at least not after trying to attack someone with a killing edge I'd just gotten...only to realize that it only had one use left.  
  
So I set out from Ilia with my sword, which is actually similar to a Wo Dao but is rather powerful while having the same critical rate (not to mention 50 uses), a Hammerne Staff just in case I end up using my sword alot, and a Thunder tome because it looks like I've smited anyone I attack with it. Whatever, that's not very important.  
  
The climate sure does change quickly once you leave Ilia. I'm surprised Sacae is a grassland rather than a desert. It hasn't rained a single day that I've been here, it's extremely hot, and when it's nothing but plains as far as the eye can see, it's too easy to get lost. Way too easy. For all I know I've been walking in circles. In fact, I probably am. At least the leather armor I'm wearing isn't very heavy.  
  
-Brian, the tactician  
  
Day 2: Location: Sacae, lost Weather: Hot, dry, the usual  
  
Guess what? I actually saw someone today. Some horseback archer guy, probably no one important. Besides, his horse looked like it had seen MUCH better days. No offense to the guy. He looked pretty lost too, but maybe all nomads look like that. I wanted to talk but he said he was in a hurry. I don't blame him, he was probably chasing some guy that was laughing at his people or something. I don't know.  
  
On another note, isn't there some sort of river somewhere near here? I'm thirsty as hell.  
  
-Brian, the tactician  
  
Day 4: Location: some girl's house Weather: Still hot, still dry, what do you expect?  
  
Oy...  
  
Well, I passed out from dehydration, or something like that. Anyway, I have no idea how long I was unconscious, but when I came to I wasn't out in the sun anymore. I was in some sort of hut. Apparently some girl named Lyn had found me and cared for me while I was unconscious. I'm not really sure if I can trust her. There's no telling what she did while I was unconscious. She sure is hot though.  
  
I was only awake for all of a minute, probably less than that, before Lyn decided she had to stop a couple of bandits from raiding some village. What fun. Well, it looks like I may get to do something as a tactician after all. There were only two of them, the leader of which has to have the stupidest name anyone could come up with. Even worse, if that was possible, was his nickname, "Batta the Beast" He REALLY needs to work on that.  
  
Once that was over with Lyn asked if I would help her become stronger, or something like that. She also mentioned that her parents were slain by bandits. I don't have anything better to do. Besides, I may even get to do something with her before it's over. Who knows?  
  
-Brian, the tactician   
  
Samus: THERE YOU ARE!  
  
Me: (oh crap) BOOZE, SAMUS!  
  
Samus: Booze?  
  
Me: Whew...well, there's chapter 1 for you, I know, it starts before the events of the game, but it has to be different from other tactician's journal fics somehow 


	2. Chapter 1: Bandits are Jerks

Me: The next chapter is here  
  
Samus: Wait, it's a journal, right?  
  
Me: Yeah  
  
Samus: So why is it in chapters?  
  
Kabs: gasp Plothole!! DIE!!! zaps Samus  
  
aaanyway, that's not the point, here's the fic  
  
Chapter 1: Bandits are Jerks -  
Day 5:  
Location: Bulgar, Sacae Weather: I thought we went over this already  
  
I had no clue there was such thing as a city here. Bulgar is apparently the largest city in Sacae. That's not really saying much, Ilia's not very populated and I've seen larger cities there.  
  
Can't I be somewhere for more than a minute before something happens? This time two people on horses come over to us, and one of them immediately starts hitting on Lyn. No luck. Who would've expected any? What are Lycian knights doing here anyway?  
  
I knew we shouldn't have left town when we did, some ugly guy and a few bandits immediately starts chasing us. As if on cue, here come those knights again. At least they're not trying to kill us. A small battle ensues. Those bandits are really weak.  
  
It seems those knights actually had a reason for getting themselves lost here. Their names were Kent, who was actually rational, and Sain, who had hit on Lyn earlier and struck me as an idiot. Something about Lyn being the granddaughter of the marquess (why they are called that, I may never know) of Caelin, some territory in Lycia. And then of course the marquess has a brother that's trying really hard to kill Lyn. So now we're going there. I'd still rather go to Bern or something, their army is probably cooler.  
  
-Brian, the tactician  
  
Day 6:  
Location: some temple or shrine or something Weather: a little cooler...barely  
  
I was wrong about Batta. He doesn't have the worst name ever. That award goes to the mercenary we kept from stealing some sword. Glass, I believe was his name. Nothing new about this fight, except that for keeping Glass from stealing the sword, it was given to Lyn. I bet Glass only wanted it because it was shiny. Go figure. Nothing else to say here.  
  
-Brian, the tactician  
  
Day 7:  
Location: The Bern Mountains Weather: well it was clear at first but now that I'm writing this it's about to rain.  
  
Well would you look at that, some bandits burned down a village. What else is new? Well, other than the fact that we found some pegasus knight who landed on one of the bandits. She turned out to be an old friend of Lyn's named Florina. She's as timid as they come, and even more freaked out when we get another companion after visiting one of the villages. An archer. This guy, Wil, won't ever stop talking! I don't see why Florina is so scared of him, he almost talks too much to be able to shoot a single arrow. He's fairly good when he does manage to fight, but can't dodge worth a crap. I can tell he's not wearing chainmail or something, so why won't he learn to duck?!  
  
Oh, and we kicked some ganelon group's ass today.  
  
-Brian, the tactician  
  
Day 8:  
Location: A Ruined Fortress Weather: Humid  
  
I can't believe we're sleeping here. Sure, I don't mind sleeping under the stars, but we're not in Sacae anymore. It can actually rain here. Anyway, when we started to set up camp some person in the fortesss came up and talked to us. Apparently she was looking for her husband. She gave Lyn a sketch of him and said that his name was Dorcas. Cue the bandits...now.  
  
As it turned out, Dorcas had been working with the bandits because he needed money. We actually managed not to kill him, and he ended up fighting with us. I don't know how, I didn't invite him. Then again I didn't say "no you can't now go away" either.  
  
Once everything had settled down we tried to go to sleep. Wil kept talking half the night, and Sain made at least two advances on Florina. I don't know if I'll be able to survive this journey, not with the way things are going now.  
  
-Brian, the tactician  
  
Day 9:  
Location: Border of Lycia/Bern Weather: Rainy  
  
Sain made another advance on Florina today. Lyn almost sliced his head off. That must explain why Sain has stopped hitting on Lyn.  
  
We'll hopefully have something other than tents to sleep in soon. Kent says there's an inn we can stay at once we're in Lycia. That's good, because most of the tents are in fairly bad condition. At least I'm sharing a tent with Lyn. Being a tactician does have a few advantages, I guess.  
  
Wil got us some food for today. I'm surprised he actually stopped talking about hunting long enough to actually do some. His cooking isn't too bad either, but Lyn is definitely better at it.  
  
-Brian, the tactician  
  
Day 10:  
Location: Just past the border Weather: Cloudy  
  
Aaand, we're in Lycia. Not very impressive if you ask me. The same bandits from earlier are making a last attempt at doing us in. During this failed attempt we ended up dragging two more people along with us. Erk, a mage who, though he doesn't talk a whole lot, actually has a sense of humor, and (someone help me) Serra, a cleric and the most annoying girl in the world. She talks even more than Wil. Usually when someone tells Wil to shut up, he'll do it, but Serra will just take offense and get even more annoying. I think she has Erk pretty close to snapping.  
  
It looks like Sain is finally giving Florina a break, now that he's seen Serra. I don't care what she looks like, Sain HAS to be completely insane to go after her.  
  
Now that those bandits are gone (I even got the chance to chop one in half), we found an inn we can stay at, just like Kent said. They were a bit short on rooms (hey, it's a small inn), so we had to pair off. It ended up Lyn and Florina, Sain and Kent (much to Sain's dismay), me and Wil, Serra and Erk (I won't be surprised if I wake up to find the inn burned to the ground), and Dorcas had a room to himself. Damn, he's lucky. Wil will probably keep me up half the night. I do feel sorry for Erk though. Not that I'd trade rooms with him.  
  
-Brian, the tactician -  
Me: That's it for now.  
  
Samus: Not bad.  
  
Me: I wish I could at least get free booze for writing this  
  
Ridley: No free drink!!  
  
Me: See? 


	3. Chapter 2: I sure hope the rest of Lycia

Ah, screw the intro dialogue thing, it's more trouble than it's worth. But since I feel like it, I'll at least do review responses.  
  
Pureauthor- Meh, the game never says why the tactician can't fight, so I just made it so he can't use weapons he didn't make himself and provided some background. Besides, I rarely have the tactician fight anyway. He's too lazy. As for standard jokes, I might as well take something obvious and do something with it.  
  
DotDotDotMan- Yes, in this fic, he can. But usually he doesn't.  
  
Anyway, not too important. Here's the next chapter  
  
Chapter 2: I sure hope the rest of Lycia isn't like this -  
Day 11:  
Location: North of Araphen Weather: Cloudy  
  
I really hate the weather here. It's almost as bad as having the exact opposite in Sacae.  
  
As I guessed he would, Wil kept me up half the night. What I don't know is how Erk managed to survive the night without killing Serra. I'll probably never know that one.  
  
And now we're heading...somewhere. That big mountain in Ilia is still more impressive than what I've seen here, and that's saying something.  
  
Ever since Serra pulled that "I'm so generous I won't charge him for healing" thing on me (concerning Erk, of course), I've been wanting to seriously hurt her. She later tried to swipe this here journal, probably to make sure I wasn't saying bad things about her in it (rolls eyes like that'll ever happen), but she backed off when I threatened to stab her.  
  
And we have to camp out again tonight. The good news is I'm sharing a tent with Lyn again. And to think I originally felt like an idiot for not bringing one. But it wouldn't do me much good. Last time I used it it leaked, and I ended up slashing it several times.  
  
Oh, and Erk finally snapped today.  
  
Erk: Why did you set up your tent next to mine?  
  
Serra: Because I want to be near you, Erk  
  
Erk: I, on the other hand...  
  
Serra: Really? The nerve of some people. blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah  
  
Erk: snap  
  
-10 seconds later-  
  
Serra: eeeeeek! EEEEEEEEEK!  
  
Me: sigh what now?  
  
Serra: eeeeeeeeeeeek! My hair's on fire!  
  
Me: Lyn, are you SURE there isn't a lake near here that we can throw her in?  
  
Lyn: ........  
  
so we eventually had to resort to dumping a bucket of water on her head. I still wish we could've thrown her into a lake and...er...accidentally forgotten about her.  
  
-Brian, the tactician  
  
Day 12:  
Location: Araphen Weather: Cloudy, again  
  
Hey, look! We're in Araphen.  
  
As if on cue, the instant we enter the city, Kent runs off to seek aid from the Marquess. The villagers here are pretty nice, at least they were until Erk accidentally set someone's laundry on fire (he was aiming for Serra). Then someone noticed it and tried to pour water from her water jar (or something like that) on it, only to realize she forgot to take the cork out (why did she have a cork in it, it was a jar, not a bottle). So, Will shot the jar with an arrow. The fire was put out, but the remains of the jar landed on the person holding it. I apologized for the whole incident and took Erk aside.  
  
Me: What the hell are you doing?!  
  
Erk: I was trying to get Serra...she...  
  
Me: look, as much as I agree with your reasoning, this is a city for crying out loud.  
  
Erk: you have a point  
  
Me: Wait...ah, screw the lecture, Kent's back  
  
And he was. But suddenly several different things happened at once.  
  
Kent: The Marquess has agreed to lend us his aid.  
  
Lyn: really? That's wonderful!  
  
Me: (only as long as I'm still the ringleader)  
  
Random Guy: Look! The castle! It-It's burning!  
  
Me: what?  
  
Wil: .........  
  
Erk: It wasn't me!  
  
Me: sees the smoke cloud ohhhhhhhh sh-  
  
Some assassin: threatens Lyn prepare yourself!  
  
Me: (for what?)  
  
assassin: AAAAAAAUUUURRRRRGHH!!!  
  
Lyn: huh? an arrow?  
  
This guy on a horse had pulled out a bow and shot the assassin from behind. Now where have I seen someone like this before? Oh yeah, before I passed out in Sacae. It's obvious he's not the same guy, though. I still wish he'd let me smite the assassin with my thunder tome. I probably shouldn't do that, I'm better off with Erk not knowing I have it. Anyway, Lyn got this archer guy, Rath, I think, to help us rescue the marquess. She didn't need to bring up the fact that these people are attacking the castle because of her, that seemed perfectly obvious, but she did anyway. Oh well, no harm done. Lyn also recruited one other person, Matthew, a thief. He's really weird. He keeps saying things like "don't be such a bore, Brian"  
  
He's actually pretty cool, he taught me some good excuses for stealing stuff and the like. I get the distinct feeling he knows Serra from somewhere. As scary as that thought is, it doesn't seem like they were friends or something, more of a "oh no not her again" kinda thing.  
  
But then, everyone would say that about her.  
  
The marquess of Araphen is a total prick, though. He apparently hates all nomads (but then why does Rath work for him?). It would be funny if that guy I saw on day 2 was chasing him down or something. Oh, and he's heard that Lyn's grandfather is dying of some illness (I'm willing to place a HUGE bet that it's actually poison). This definitely doesn't bode well. Just a note for the future, try to avoid getting stuck in an adventure where I constantly encounter, as well as ending up traveling with, complete idiots.  
  
-Brian, the tactician.  
-  
That's about it for this chapter. Still not too important but it's something. These entries I'd written over the summer. I doubt I'll write any more for a while, since school's just started for me. 


	4. Chapter 3: But it probably is

time for more review responses  
  
Rednal29- well I'm glad someone likes it. And I promise that I'll update when I can.  
  
anyway, here's the story, and yes I will include all side quests, blah blah woof woof  
  
Chapter 3: But it probably is -  
Day 14:  
Location: Just in Khathelet Weather: Sunny (for once), but still humid.  
  
Well, I didn't write yesterday because we only stopped once, at which point I had to put Serra's hair out again. It didn't help when Matthew stole the water bucket from me and dumped it on Sain. It was funny though. We didn't stop for the night until Lyn was sure we were out of Araphen (she gets annoying sometimes).  
  
Sain's still trying to get with one of the girls in our party. If Lyn snaps from it and stabs him, I'm going to laugh. I'm still sharing a tent with Lyn, at least for the time being, and everyone else has their own. Lyn may be the only one who knows I practically cut the only one I have to shreds. Matthew would probably get a kick out of that story.  
  
What's really odd is that Lyn seemed oblivious to the fact that I had a journal with me...it was as though she first noticed it when I was writing in our tent.  
  
Lyn: hi Brian...oh, you're keeping a journal?  
  
Me: since I left home  
  
Lyn: I knew you were carrying something with you, but I thought you were helping Erk resist the urge to torch Serra again.  
  
Me: what, by holding his fire tome for him?  
  
Lyn: it would make sense.  
  
Me: True...well I am glad that your first reaction to me having a journal wasn't to try and swipe it from me.  
  
Lyn: Really, who did that?  
  
Me: Take a guess.  
  
Lyn: Matthew?  
  
Me: No, Serra. Matthew would probably do that at the first opportunity, though.  
  
Speaking of Matthew, Wil was going to hunt tonight, but Matthew stole his quiver. Lyn and I ended up getting food for the night.  
  
-Brian, the tactician  
  
Day 15:  
Location: Khathelet...but not the actual city yet.  
Weather: Rainy  
  
I woke up to find Lyn still asleep. I wasn't surprised, what with how little sleep we'd gotten the past few days.  
  
In fact, the only other person awake so far was Matthew. He was plotting some prank to pull on Serra. A few minutes later Erk came out, listened to Matthew's plan, and laughed. It was possibly the most simple practical joke idea I had ever heard. Matthew's plan was to stab a hole in Serra's tent right above her head. In fact, it would have been completely pointless...had it not been raining at the time. Matthew carried it out...with hilarious results.  
  
Serra: ...! eeeeeeeek! eeeeeeeeeeek! EEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!  
  
Me, Matthew, and Erk: all laugh  
  
Somewhere between Serra's screaming and our laughing our heads off, pretty much everyone else woke up. Except Wil. He was not about to wake up, not with finding where Matthew put his quiver leaving him to finally get to sleep a little over an hour ago. Every one just watched the scene for the most part. The only one who did something was Sain, who offered to let Serra sleep in his tent with him. Serra just whacked him with her staff. In doing this she got an idea and fixed her tent with her Heal staff.  
  
Did I miss something? I thought a Heal staff could only be used on other people (no, not in that way...you have a sick mind). How could she repair a tent with it? A Hammerne staff maybe, but a Heal? I don't get it. Well, it worked anyway, so Matthew or Erk didn't have to trade tents with her.  
  
-Brian, the tactician  
  
Day 16:  
Location: Khathelet Weather: Cloudy, but not raining anymore  
  
Hey, we weren't fighting bandits today!  
  
That doesn't mean I know who these guys are. They have some shamans working for them, though.  
  
They were wielding a spell called "Flux". I got a real kick out of this.  
  
Me: eheheh  
  
Matthew: What?  
  
Me: heh heh, flux  
  
Matthew: What's so funny about it?  
  
Me: I don't know what the flux is so fluxing funny about it.  
  
Matthew: .....  
  
That aside, we once again have two new recruits. One is this little kid named Nils. He came up to us saying this group of people kidnapped his sister and begged us to help. He can play some sort of flute that does...something.  
  
The other guy is Lucius. I could've sworn he was a woman. Sain apparently thought so too, and immediately went at him. Lucius is a bit touchy on the gender subject, and thus hit Sain with a lightning spell. Lightning has to be the worst name someone could think of for that spell. It can't even smite people.  
  
Anyway, when we defeated this group's ringleader, whose name sounds like a brand of ketchup, we entered the castle...thingy. We couldn't find Nils' sister, and when Kent spotted some people riding south everyone immediately thought they had her. Then some redhead from Pherae walked up holding her.  
  
I don't remember the guy's name. Something about a tree or something. Ninian revealed herself to be some sort of dancer. This naturally set Sain off. Kent managed to hold him back this time, though. This girl, Ninian, claims to have had a ring stolen by those guys that had kidnapped her. We're about to go after them now.  
  
-Brian, the tactician  
  
Day 17:  
Location: Some freaky fortress thing Weather: inside-ish  
  
Not much happened today.  
Erk torched a lot of people (Serra was almost one of them), Matthew stole something from a thief (what is this world coming to?), and we got Ninian's ring back.  
  
The guy who had it went and poisoned himself. We're apparently dealing with a group of assassins. Lyn thinks this group must be very advanced. I honestly think "advanced assassins" is an oxymoron. Matthew is the only one who agrees with me on that. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Most likely a bad thing.  
  
-Brian, the tactician -  
Like I said, school is going to keep me from updating much. Deal with it.  
Besides, I posted the first two within five minutes of each other, so it's not like I owe anyone anything.  
  
Matthew: You still owe me five gold!  
  
Okay, never mind. 


	5. Chapter 4: Circles

Brian (yes, that's me): So anyway, here I was, re-addicting myself to Fire Emblem fanfics, and I'm thinking to myself, 'hey, I used to have a fic myself'. So I look at my old work, and eventually decide it's worth continuing. I've redone the style a bit, and will hopefully have more insight into the more controversial aspects of this story (i.e. tactician can use weapons).

Nephenee: …but you aren't going to change the stuff that's already there, are you?

Brian: Probably not, unless whoever made the no script rule gets on my ass about what went up before that rule was made.

Nephenee: Okay, if you say so.

Brian: I do. Now before I get to review responses, I'd like to take this moment to introduce my new muses, since I'm still not too keen on keeping the crew of Planet Zebeth around without permission. Anyway, I've got one from each English FE game. You've already met Nephenee, thanks to her comments. So, Joshua, Lyn, get out here.

Joshua: Hey…

Lyn: Hi!

Brian: What, that's it?

Joshua: (to Lyn) Wanna take a bet on how much longer his A/N will be?

Brian: Nevermind. Cue…the reviews:

**Pureauthor:** Camp scenes are my specialty. And part of my style change starting this chapter is to make these a bit longer. As for the line…I've seen worse.

**Rednal29:** Still glad you like it. Could someone clarify what "Go Ninian" is supposed to suggest for me to do with her?

**Hurricane's Quill:** Last comic standing? There's still a ways to go before I'd be able to get that.

**Macross-Green: **Glad you liked it enough to want to try it yourself. I got started because I saw something like this that I liked, so…

Brian: That's all the reviews we have. A/N ends in 5…4…3…2…1…

Joshua: What, already? Great, lost again.

Brian: Sorry to disappoint you.

Nephenee: Brian does not own Fire Emblem. Actually, he only partially owns his own character in this fic.

Brian: Yeah. If I did, all the female characters would be as hot as Nephenee here.

Nephenee: slaps Brian

Chapter 4: Circles

Early Morning Day 18 (as in maybe 1 AM)

Location: Just outside Caelin territory

Weather: Gloomy

There was another incident involving Serra today. Turns out Matthew put pinecones in her sleeping bag. By the time she tried to go to sleep and laid down on them, Matthew was nowhere to be found. So I ended up having to clean up her sleeping bag in his stead. Why? I hang out with him too much, so she ran into me when I was looking for him and made me do it. So when I was done, she wanted me to straighten out the rest of her tent for her.

"_Get the wrinkles out of my sleeping bag! I don't like wrinkles!" screamed Serra, after I moved the lamp, fluffed the pillow, rearranged her staves, and re-did the tent stakes. "Okay, that's going to far," I said, frustrated. "Can you please get someone else to do it, or - Elimine forbid – DO IT YOURSELF!"_

"_NO! I WANT YOU TO DO IT!" screamed Serra, her voice loud enough to wake the dead._

"_Oh for the love of... just shut up before I get Erk to come burn your tent down!"_

"_Hey that's an idea, I'll make Erky do it!"_

Suffice to say, the result of that incident wasn't pretty. Erk almost did burn Serra's tent down just for waking him up. About that time Matthew decided to come back, and announced his return by poking Serra after she started whining again. Her shriek of surprise woke up the entire camp and scared the living shit out of Nils and Ninian. Finally I'd had enough and whipped out my thunder tome. Unfortunately I never was too good with magic and couldn't get the spell to work, so I just hit Serra over the head with the tome and put it up before Erk saw what it was. So, Serra was knocked out and that was that. Now, time for me to…………………….. (trails off)

Day 18

Border with Caelin

Weather: still gloomy

Well, I apparently fell asleep while writing in here last night. Naturally, I blame Serra for keeping me up over two hours longer than I was planning.

We're finally back on the road. Serra has found a new outlet for her annoyingness in the form of Lucius. I don't care if he's touchy about his gender, he acts just as girly as he looks. So while Lucius and Serra are yammering about hair, I, staying far away from them, go to talk with Lyn.

"_I hope that…incident last night wasn't too much trouble for you," she said as I walked up._

"_Too much trouble!" I answer incredulously, "That girl is going to be the death of everyone in this group!"_

"_I was afraid of that," Lyn said darkly, before brightening up, "But hey, once we're done with this, you won't have to deal with her anymore."_

"_True, they are leaving for Ostia as soon as we finish this."_

We spent the next hour or so mostly in silence, with a few thoughts popping up here and there, until the knights rode up and told Lyn that castle Caelin was only about two days away. Next thing I know Nils is yelling about something, then a massive bolt barely misses Lyn. So naturally, we get ready to fight. Unfortunately, while I'm working on a strategy to beat these guys without getting shot (That's a fluxing ballista they had.), Matthew suddenly decides he can't fight this time and runs off.

On another note…I didn't say this last night since I never did finish writing, but I'm no longer signing my journal entries. I think it's pretty obvious who's writing these by now.

Late night, Day 18

Location: En route back to Khathelet

Weather: Rainy (and here I thought we were done with rain for the time being)

Okay, just a note, those guys that attacked us were Caelin troops. So this Lundgren guy's either bribed them or is threatening them or their families. After Matthew came back and gave his news, I definitely think it's the latter. He told us two other things to make our life hell for the next few days. One, apparently the marquess is being poisoned. Matthew revealed this along with the dramatic presentation of the name I already suspected for who was doing it. That's right, Lundork. I mean Lundgren. As for the second piece… apparently some girl already showed up at Castle Caelin claiming to be the Marquess's granddaughter. So now everyone is supposed to think Lyn is an imposter and Kent and Sain are oathbreakers. Or something like that. And now Lundork wants to get the territories bordering Caelin to help him.

So now we're further away from our destination than we were last night because Lyn thinks tree-man (still can't remember his name) can help prevent that.

As I write this, Wil is off hunting, Dorcas is getting firewood, Matthew is doing… whatever he does… and Serra is knocked out. Aside from the rain, life doesn't completely suck right now. Of course even with a fire tome, it's going to be a little hard to start a fire in this weather.

Day 19

Location: Some border town in Khathelet

Weather: foggy

Well, looks like we won't have to deal with unwanted reinforcements. According to Eliwood (YES! Remembered his name this time!), the territories bordering Caelin are going to stay out of this. On the other hand he can't directly help us either because of that, but I'm not sure we'd have been better off if he was.

Though we're staying the night here, it looks like tomorrow we'll have to go through some general's estate. I asked Sain where it was, he pointed to the area past the mountain range that began not far from the village. So I took a look. According to Sain, it was the area between the mountains and the mansion off in the distance. I must say, that is one big-ass estate.

I finally get my own room tonight, so I don't have to put up with:

-Sain, who will keep me up talking about how hot the girls in our group are

-Kent, who probably won't keep me up, but I don't like him because he's too obsessed with rules

-Dorcas, who talks in his sleep

-Wil, who just plain talks too much

-Erk, who I'm still hiding that thunder tome from

-Serra, who I REALLY FRIGGIN HATE for obvious reasons

-Rath, who's a little TOO quiet…he scares me…

-Lucius, who acts almost as girly as he looks and also scares me

The others I wouldn't mind sharing a room with, but I didn't have to, so I'm happy.

But my night was far from peaceful. I've taken to getting up and wandering at night when everyone else is supposed to be asleep to makes sure there are no…problems. You know what I mean. Er…I know what I mean. Well…something. Anyway, I was wandering earlier and had forgotten that Erk was stuck with Serra again until I went by their room. Apparently, Serra had Erk re-arrange her room, much like what she made me do with her tent two nights ago. Erk eventually got fed up and cast a Fire spell at her. He missed, and burned down the wall between their and Wil and Dorcas's room, as well as Wil's bed. So I walk in to see Wil trying to kill both of them. Took me twenty minutes to get them to shut up, get over it, and go back to sleep. We had someone haul in another bed for Wil so he didn't end up sleeping in my room. Elimine forbid we'd let that happen.

Joshua: Well, at least I won SOMETHING.

Brian: Oh?

Joshua: I bet Lyn that you'd have less than five entries. You had four.

Brian: Well, at least they were longer, right?

Lyn: So when am I going to fall for you?

Brian: In this fic? Probably sometime after we kick Laus out of Caelin.

Lyn: So not for another year?

Brian: Story-wise, 'fraid not.

Brian: R&R people. This means you.


End file.
